Holding quits ICC over Oval change

Cricket officials who hoped this week might end with one sort of resignation from the International Cricket Council (ICC) had to cope with another as Michael Holding quit its cricket committee.

The West Indies great stepped down in protest at the ICC's decision, taken at its board meeting in Dubai, to change the result of the 2006 Oval Test from an England win over Pakistan to a draw.

Pakistan were originally ruled to have forfeited the match, something never before seen in a Test, following their refusal to take the field after tea on the fourth day having previously been penalised five runs for ball-tampering by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove.

A subsequent hearing cleared Pakistan of ball-tampering and, on Thursday, the ICC took the extraordinary step of altering the match result.

Former fast bowler Holding, while accepting Pakistan were not guilty of ball-tampering, said their refusal to play should not go unpunished.

"When you take certain actions, you must be quite happy to suffer the consequences," he said while commentating for Sky Sports on Friday during Kent's semi-final win over Durham in English cricket's domestic 50-over event.

"That game should never, ever be a draw.

"I have just written my letter of resignation to the ICC cricket committee because I cannot agree with what they've done.

"A lot of things that are happening today I don't want to be involved with, so I've moved on."

Holding's announcement set the seal on a turbulent week for the ICC which saw England and South Africa pushing for the suspension of strife-torn Zimbabwe from world cricket.

But the Asian bloc -- led by the game's commercial powerhouse India -- opposed the move.

Instead a compromise was reached which saw Zimbabwe pull out of next year's World Twenty20 in England.

That move came after the British government had made it clear it would not issue visas to Zimbabwean cricketers, thereby effectively cancelling their scheduled tour of England in 2009.

Had Zimbabwe insisted on its right to participate, the lucrative tournament could have been moved elsewhere although that in turn could have led to a boycott by England and other leading nations.

Quite apart from the politically inspired violence which saw opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pull out of the country's recent presidential election in order to spare his supporters further punishment from the regime of President Robert Mugabe, there is a cricketing case that can be made for exiling Zimbabwe.

They voluntarily withdrew from Test cricket in September 2005 following a collapse in playing standards brought about by a race row over selection.

However, they remained an active one-day international side. But in their 32 ODI since August 2006 they have won only two, losing 28.

Meanwhile concerns have been raised regarding the finances of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC).

Malcolm Speed effectively stepped down early from his post as ICC chief executive because of the board's failure to take action on the back of an audit by leading accountants KPMG, said to have noted "serious financial irregularities" in ZC's books.

Although there has been much talk within ICC circles of keeping politics out of cricket, former Zimbabwe batsman Andy Flower, now an England assistant coach, is adamant that Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute, the chairman and managing director of ZC respectively, have close links with Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

But incoming ICC president David Morgan, formerly the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, told reporters in Dubai: "The full membership of Zimbabwe is currently not in doubt. There was not even a discussion on the issue of Zimbabwe's membership."